A Flat C-Soprano

[vermontsax]

Folks,

I bought an old King C-soprano and have been playing it on-and-off for about a year now. I'm fairly proficient on the tenor and alto but am having a lot of difficulty playing this horn consistently in-tune. I'm using a Yamaha 4C which seemed to work best for me out of a selection I tried at the music store. Unfortunately I haven't found a local store that will let me try out the Runyon custom someone suggested in another posting.

The horn plays flat though my mouthpiece is as far in as it will go. I've gotten to the point where most notes play well in-tune but I'm still having consistent issues with the middle C and especially the middle (open) C#. The only real "solution" I have found is to finger a high B by putting the spatula B key down.

Has anyone else had this experience? I don't want to get rid of this horn because I love its sound but I'm really having a hard time with it.

In addition, does anyone know of any music shops that would let me try out Runyon mouthpieces in the Buffalo, NY area?

[super20dan]

i went tru the same thing -here is what to do - take a hack saw and cut most of the shank off the yamaha and it will then go on to the neck far enough to come up to pitch. good thing the yamaha is cheap right? would pain one to butcher an expencive mpc but this is what you will have to do. my cutoff yamaha works great on my buescher c sop but the runyon custom is even better.

[awholley]

I believe MojoBari has some C-soprano blanks he could use to make a proper mouthpiece for you.

[saxcurious]

I have a York C-soprano and it does really well with a Runyon custom as far on the neck as it can go; I do not use the spoiler (I'm still quite fond of my ear-drums). You could try ordering one for trial from WWBW or similar bussines.
The other mouthpiece I have is a Rico with the shank cut short but the Runyon is more in tune overall (has a smaller chamber).

[bruce bailey]

I have a Conn C soprano and the intonation is really iffy. If you tune to G, the horn gets flatter as you go up the stack and sharper as you go down. One thing that helped was to bring down the keys a bit as most techs seem to get them too open like a Bb soprano. As far as the mouthpieces, it is always said that it takes a C and not a Bb. So far, I have not found that it makes that much difference. I got 4 from Theo to try and none was any better than the Bb ones I have. I really think that the best way to approach it is to tune the horn a bit sharp and play it like an oboe with a looser sound and just work the pitch as you go. Open mouthpieces seem to make the pitch worse and some people I have talked with think that a Yamaha 4C is a decent choice.

[MojoBari]

... the horn gets flatter as you go up the stack and sharper as you go down....This is an indication to try large chamber stubby mouthpieces and push them on real far. Vintage Bb MPs, like Bueschers, would help take some of this out.

[cmelodysax]

Appreciate this is an old topic, but just to confirm that if you can get hold of any vintage 'short-shank' Bb soprano mouthpieces, they often play the whole range in quite reasonable tune on a C-Soprano if you push them on literally as far as they can go. Like all C-saxes (and some Eb/Bb vintage ones) the odd note needs a helping 'lip'.

I use elderly (Bb) ebonite Link and Meyer mpcs very tunefully on a Conn PanAm C-Soprano, currently the Meyer is currently just 3 mm off the top octave pad (that close !). The C-Sop mpc that came with the sax obviously didn't go on quite that far.....

Regards, Alan.